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Shopping for another car, mine requires a lot of work unfortunately and the value in fixing it all doesn't make financial sense.

Hey; great minds think... logically.
Woke up, ran the sprinklers, alas no crossword (cancelled the subscription while on vacation and haven't re-upped yet), had the A/C come on before 8am (meaning it's at 78 in the house). Went to the Toyota dealership where my mom got hers (for some "loyalty" discounts); about 3 hours or so later, drove out with a new Camry in a nice color (goodbye "Elizabeth," my Saturn ION for over 8 years; you were an erstwhile road companion). Uploaded, organized, and resized more vacation photos. Read an actual book. Wanted the coolness (temperature-wise) of a restaurant for dinner, but instead was ensured our food would never get cold there. Bought a carton of OJ from the store on the way home, then watched some DVR programs before heading to night-night.

Hey; great minds think... logically.
Woke up, ran the sprinklers, alas no crossword (cancelled the subscription while on vacation and haven't re-upped yet), had the A/C come on before 8am (meaning it's at 78 in the house). Went to the Toyota dealership where my mom got hers (for some "loyalty" discounts); about 3 hours or so later, drove out with a new Camry in a nice color (goodbye "Elizabeth," my Saturn ION for over 8 years; you were an erstwhile road companion). Uploaded, organized, and resized more vacation photos. Read an actual book. Wanted the coolness (temperature-wise) of a restaurant for dinner, but instead was ensured our food would never get cold there. Bought a carton of OJ from the store on the way home, then watched some DVR programs before heading to night-night.

Being too logical in LA makes car buying impossible, there's way too many awful cars to sift through, and everybody either wants too much or has a weird problem or both, so it was rough shopping logically without the ability to buy off the lot.

I was going to make a Fred Sanford joke about your car's name, but you can fill in the joke really.

Hit a few panels, hung out with Bikerscout and Adam from these very forums, had a few meals, and then drove home, another 2 hours on the road, my back still hurts even after spending hours yesterday swimming, sunning, and hot tubbing. Ohh, poor baby.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Great call with the Camry BCJ. I had one that I just stopped driving last week that had over 292k. I really wanted to hit 300k but the oppertunity I had for a new car (to me) was to great to pass up. What do I have now? Another Camry.

My big qualm about the Camry is that it's very uninspiring. It's the car you drive to get to the store, or to grandma's, or to work. You don't enjoy it, you don't drive it to take corners or blast off the line or look like a mack or put people in your rearview anytime you want. The industry has a term for it, "beige", not just a color but everything, it's fine but not inspiring at all, it is an adequate, well-built, reliable peoplemover without any hidden style or power or performance benefits. That's why I didn't hunt harder for it, that and they hold their value too well for what I could afford, so either I'd be buying a car with 200k miles on it or from the '90s, and neither was acceptable in my book. I would have taken that blue one in Santa Monica mainly because it only had 2 owners and was near my grandma's house and it had a nice new stereo with USB input.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

That's why I got the "Clearwater Blue" color. I haven't seen many cars of that color on the road or in parking lots since I got it. It's no red or green or yellow to stand out, but it's still different enough. I'm not a style person when it comes to cars; I want reliability and long life (I guess I'm a "beige" person, then). This is the first car I've owned that wasn't gray or silver, like seemingly everyone else's car.

That's why I got the "Clearwater Blue" color. I haven't seen many cars of that color on the road or in parking lots since I got it. It's no red or green or yellow to stand out, but it's still different enough. I'm not a style person when it comes to cars; I want reliability and long life (I guess I'm a "beige" person, then).

Indeed. When they have those commercials that say, "built for drivers", I don't think I fall into the category of person they are trying to describe. I had a Honda Civic for 17 years that I got from my sister (and it was already 5 years old at the time). I guess the only flashy thing about it was that it was red. At the end of last year I got a Honda Fit in "Vortex Pearl Blue" I believe it was called.

As for what I did last Saturday. Went for a walk with my girlfriend in the morning. Mowed the lawn in the afternoon. Watched some classic Doctor Who in the evening, and made some Knox blocks to take to a Sunday barbecue. I was out of grape juice, so had to use cran-raspberry.

My big qualm about the Camry is that it's very uninspiring. It's the car you drive to get to the store, or to grandma's, or to work. You don't enjoy it, you don't drive it to take corners or blast off the line or look like a mack or put people in your rearview anytime you want. The industry has a term for it, "beige", not just a color but everything, it's fine but not inspiring at all, it is an adequate, well-built, reliable peoplemover without any hidden style or power or performance benefits. That's why I didn't hunt harder for it, that and they hold their value too well for what I could afford, so either I'd be buying a car with 200k miles on it or from the '90s, and neither was acceptable in my book.

True its not flashy or anything. But in the 8ish years I had it I put on 150,000 miles (thats a guess there), and the only money I put into it other then the normal stuff gas, oil changes and tires etc was $120 for a new latch on the trunk. Yeah its not sexy but even at the end it was getting me 28+ miles per gallon that consisted of city driving with a ton of starts and stops. You can't beat that. Sure you can get something with more to it but good luck with it lasting anywhere near as long with nearly no problems.

That's why I got the "Clearwater Blue" color. I haven't seen many cars of that color on the road or in parking lots since I got it. It's no red or green or yellow to stand out, but it's still different enough. I'm not a style person when it comes to cars; I want reliability and long life (I guess I'm a "beige" person, then). This is the first car I've owned that wasn't gray or silver, like seemingly everyone else's car.

Yeah, that makes sense. I find the Clearwater Blue a little too similar to stuff in the light gray family when quickly scanning, but it does stand out overall. My preference would be for a dark blue, but they DON'T OFFER ONE!!! So second choice would be Barcelona red.

My car is dark silver, like everyone else's car. It's adequate, doesn't show dirt the way my white car did, holy geez, and it's not the ugliest color in the world a la the Oldsmobile's champagne despair.

Originally Posted by Mad Slanted Powers

Indeed. When they have those commercials that say, "built for drivers", I don't think I fall into the category of person they are trying to describe. I had a Honda Civic for 17 years that I got from my sister (and it was already 5 years old at the time). I guess the only flashy thing about it was that it was red. At the end of last year I got a Honda Fit in "Vortex Pearl Blue" I believe it was called.

As for what I did last Saturday. Went for a walk with my girlfriend in the morning. Mowed the lawn in the afternoon. Watched some classic Doctor Who in the evening, and made some Knox blocks to take to a Sunday barbecue. I was out of grape juice, so had to use cran-raspberry.

A Honda Civic can be a driver's car, but needs to be tuned for it, it's a general peoplemover with its baseline setup. The Fit can be fun to look at with some help, but is an understeer machine so I'd never advice driving it fun. Luckily, that's not where you are as a driver, so it's not a problem, but I advise all my friends with a Honda Fit to drive sensibly and never expect it to corner in an emergency.

I think the attitude our society has created in the last 15 years of "driving is for getting places, not fun" has created a society that doesn't really know how to drive anymore, they know how to aim a car but not how to drive it, and they don't seem to want to, hence the dearth of fun, cheap cars between the late '90s and now. I feel like if the society takes the fun out of driving, they also risk taking the skill out of driving - when you know how to control your vehicle for fun, you also learn how to control your vehicle in emergency situations, what type of handling you might need to use to save your life. I see all the time people braking while cornering instead of beforehand, not understanding the physics of momentum as they take a turn too fast, weaving uncontrollably at emergency situations at speed. I think we have to put the skill back into driving, and one way to do that is to put the fun back into driving as a group mentality AND the raise the licensing requirements.

Did you watch the 6th Doctor retrospective?

Originally Posted by JimJamBonds

True its not flashy or anything. But in the 8ish years I had it I put on 150,000 miles (thats a guess there), and the only money I put into it other then the normal stuff gas, oil changes and tires etc was $120 for a new latch on the trunk. Yeah its not sexy but even at the end it was getting me 28+ miles per gallon that consisted of city driving with a ton of starts and stops. You can't beat that. Sure you can get something with more to it but good luck with it lasting anywhere near as long with nearly no problems.

That'd be exactly 25% over the national mileage average of 15k per year.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to bash you guys and your choices in cars, I understand that every driver has different needs and wants, I was trying to explain my particular ones is all. If Toyota had made a sporty car in the late '90s to late 2000s, I would have probably bought that instead, but the killed the Supra, the Celica was underpowered and hideous and uncomfortable and yet also expensive, and then they switched to the underwhelming Scion brand. So the only real choices are their various sedans.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Don't they always say that's the most important thing to do every day? Anyhow, dropped off some recycling, as I now had a full can (just under $3), and hit the library. Helped mom with some of her deliveries, went to Costco to fix some problems with photo reprints. Home to read or watch TV. Dinner of a very cheap and tasty Costco 18" pepperoni pizza while watching an older movie.